The Hoagie

Definition
Also known as submarines, heroes, bombers, grinder, torpedoes, and rockets in other parts of the United States. Hoagies are built to order sandwiches filled with meat and cheese, as well as lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, topped off with a dash of oregano. 

History
The Hoagie is the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia". There are a number of different versions as to how the hoagie got its name, but no matter what version you believe, all agree on one thing, it started in Philadelphia.

(1) The most widely accepted story centers on an area of Philadelphia known as Hog Island, the location of the shipyard during World War I. The Italian immigrants working there would bring giant sandwiches made with cold cuts, spices, oil, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and peppers for their lunches. These workers were nicknamed "Hoggies". Over the years, the name was attached to the sandwich as well, but under a different spelling.

(2) Another version on this story says that workers at Hog island did bring this type of sandwich for lunch, but it was never called a hoagie. The story goes, that one day an Irish worker, who everyday carried an American cheese sandwich, looked enviously at his co-worker's lunches and said: "if your wife will make me one of those things, I'll buy it from you." The man went home and said to his wife "Tomorrow, make two sandwiches, one for me and one for Hogan," his co-worker's name. So everyone started calling the sandwich "Hogan's," which eventually shortened to hoagie.

(3) The third story says that during the Depression (1929-1939), out-of-work Philadelphian Al DePalma went to Hog Island near the naval shipyards to find work. When he saw the workers on lunch eating their giant sandwiches, his first thought was "those fellas look like a bunch of hogs." Instead of applying for a job at the shipyard, he opened a luncheonette that served these big sandwiches. He listed them on the menu as "hoggies" named for the hogs he saw during the lunch hour. During the late 1930's, DePalma joined forces with Buccelli's Bakery and developed the perfect hoagie roll (an eight inch roll that became the standard for the modern-day hoagie). By World War II during the 1940's, he turned the back room of his restaurant into a hoagie factory to supply sandwiches to workers at the shipyard. DePalma became known as "The King of Hoggies". At some point after World War II, the "hoggie" became "hoagie". It is said that because his customers kept calling them hoagies, he changed the name.